Is there any way that any of us could make this little bug live again? Can we bring this bug back to life? (Let children comment.) No, this isn’t something anybody on Earth can do. We aren’t stronger than death. In reading the Bible, we learn about two sons who died. One son lived back in the time of Elijah the prophet, and the other lived while Jesus was walking around on Earth. Both of these boys were their mothers’ only children. And both of the mothers were widows—their husbands had died. These mothers and sons had only each other in the world. When their sons died, the mothers had no one left. The pain of losing their only children was causing the mothers’ hearts to break.

A long ways back, when the earth still listened more than it spoke, the land did not bellow but whispered instead. And in that quiet time only a few creatures had voices and even fewer knew how to use them. The two-legged creatures had voices and yes, they knew how to use them. The earth could already hear that they used their voices too often and sometimes much too loudly.

Long, long ago when the earth was being born and creation was new and wet and stretching out in all directions, the slug was given a beginning. Every creature had a purpose and a gift. And as each was born and began to stretch, it knew what it was and why it was becoming in this great and complicated world.

The slug was born a bundle of feelings. It not only had the sharpest eyes, the keenest ears and the most sensitive touch; it

One day, many lifetimes ago, a little redwood was born in the middle of a vast forest. No sooner had the tiny sprout popped its green head out of the soft needle-covered forest floor, than it began to ask questions. Because the forest was alive with friendly creatures, the little tree got many answers to her many, many questions.

She learned the language of every animal that lighted in her branches and every creature that scurried across her roots. Even the insects that trickled through